Parabolic trough photovoltaic thermoelectric hybrid system: Simulation model, parametric analysis, and practical recommendations

This paper presents a simulation model and parametric analysis of a parabolic trough thermoelectric hybrid system. The structure of the system under study mainly consists of a parabolic trough with a triangular receiver equipped with a photovoltaic layer and thermoelectric generators at its back. A thermal model of this system is described and simulated using MATLAB software. The thermal model is utilized to investigate the system performance by performing a parametric analysis. This analysis is conducted to analyze the influence of several parameters such as fluid and air velocities, fluid channel diameter, receiver side length, and the thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric generator on the performance of the system. The results reveal that the thermal efficiency increases noticeably by 6% and 21% when increasing the dimensionless tube diameter from 0.5 to 1 and the dimensionless receiver side length from 1.67 to 8.33, respectively. It decreases significantly by 23% when rising the air Reynolds number from 1.90  ×  106 to 18.98  ×  106, whereas the fluid velocity and thermoelectric generators thermal conductivity have a negligible effect on it. Furthermore, the electric efficiency is enhanced considerably by 36% and 14% when augmenting the dimensionless tube diameter from 0.5 to 1 and the fluid Reynolds number from 5982 to 19940 respectively. However, it is noticeably reduced by 13% when increasing the dimensionless receiver side length from 1.67 to 8.33, while it is affected negligibly when varying the air velocity (air Reynolds number) and the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric generators.